A mom visit today

Oh, my poor mom. She's been having her little episodes of not feeling well in the morning off and on for at least a couple years now. But with her memory, she doesn't think so. I can remember calling her up even a couple years ago and she was supposed to have gone to visit her BF, but she'd say oh I wasn't feeling good when I got up this morning so I called him and didn't go.  Last summer I can remember him telling me about it. She was doing that to him all the time. (which was making me wonder if it really had something to do with her feeling stressed around him, so when she knew she was going to go see him, she'd wake up and fret?)

A couple days ago I logged into her doctor reports and read every visit summary from last several years (not very many, really). While not every visit was related to or mentioned this, a few were. She's had her heart checked, etc. it appears dr. thought it's anxiety, which she's already on Xanax. She also went through those 2 visits last summer where the dr. reviewed her medication to see if they could be causing this (because I think by then BF wanted it checked out and he was also worried maybe the meds were contributing to her memory issues). The only thing the dr. changed was cut her zanax dose by half.

This morning she calls and says she doesn't feel well. Her forehead is all warm and sweaty and she took her temperature and if her thermometer is right her temperatures is 113! I told her that can't be right, something must be wrong with it (obviously!). Then I tried to reassure her she gets this all the time and is fine after a little while.  And of course her reply, as always now, is well this time is different. I told her I'll find her other thermometer when I get there at 10:30. It's interesting that the 2 days I was coming to visit her, this past week, she wakes up not feeling well.

I get there and she's all worried she has a fever. I feel her forehead and say no, it feels fine.  I find both thermometers. The one she used first came out this time at 98. The other thermometer said same. She says well I don't know how my forehead can feel all sweaty and I don't have a fever. I said you can perspire and feel clammy without having a fever. Told her to go lay down a bit while I work d on hooking up her internet equipment that delivered yesterday she gets right back up and says she can't breathe good laying down, maybe something is wrong with her heart. I sit her in her chair and get her a glass of water and tell her to drink that up.  I tried to reassure her again she has this often and it always doesn't last too long.

The first thing I did when I got there was glance at her pill box. I had already put Sunday in last week and it looked empty. I asked her if she's been having any coffee in the mornings. Maybe the caffeine is affecting her. She doesn't think she has even been having coffee that she recalls (I don't think she has been either). I kept busy setting up her Internet and also the new cable tv box they sent with it.  I had to get on the phone with cable company because I couldn't get tv to work with the new box.  Next thing I know she's up and about and doing fine, lol. I'm still on the phone and her lunch gets delivered and she's busy eating, lol.

Then I go to get her pill box filled up. Open Sunday and realize the pills are still in there! The white pills do not show through the opaque white pill box. (my pill box is lavender, so I see my white pill through it). Well shoot - that could be why she's not feeling well! I remind her that missing these doses of 2 of the pills can throw her body off and make her not feel well.

So, I'm guessing these episodes are either that she is waking up and starts worrying about stuff or its related to her meds. The thinking she has a fever is new, though, and I'm guessing it's related to she's worried she might be getting the virus. Either she's missing doses, late taking them, or could even be doubling up once in awhile and not realizing it. Like I said she has been having this exact same thing once or twice a week for at least a couple years and it only happens in mornings and by later morning or afternoon she's forgotten she even felt bad that day, if I bring it up later and ask how she's feeling

Once I know I have her med situation under control, then I'm going to guess its anxiety.  Dumb me forgot to bring sticky notes to tape around her pill bottles with a note that says only open to refill pill box. I now have the written our on yellow sticky in bold red letters and will tape around her pill bottles on my next visit. I'm wondering if maybe the "Alexa" device to remind her it's time to take them, like my uncle says he uses, would be worth a try. The problem is 20 seconds later, she'll just forget it reminded her!

This bit of "hypochondria" she's developed seems to have come on the same time as her memory issues started a couple years ago. I'm seeing that I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with this! I can pretty easily deal with always repeating myself - but I'm not very good at dealing with what to do/say with medical "complaints and issues".

At least I got her internet up and running and she can now use her computer. I had to plug her small cable tv box back up (no guide or on demand with that tiny box) and the lady I was on the phone with scheduled a tech to come figure it out on Tuesday afternoon. I also got her "emergency call button" device (like life alert thing) set up, but of course she doesn't want to wear it around her neck.

Water everywhere

The sprinkler system guy worked a couple of hours and got it all working and set up/adjusted so they are all spraying in right directions, right amount of flow, etc. They are all set up on the timer now to go automatically early morning, every other day for now. He did not finish the drip heads in our front area where shrubs are, as well as some work DH had added when they originally put it all in and said they'd do it when they came back in the spring to get it all working. DH told him I need to know WHEN, so I can make a decision if that is ok. If you are too busy and can't do it, then that's fine, just tell me. We'd rather him say sorry, can't do it for 2 months then just keep telling us he's coming. He said it will be done within 2 weeks. We'll see.

It's going to be a hot one today at 91. I'm going to go visit my mom tomorrow. I got an email with the tracking on her internet equipment and it's supposed to deliver today. Maybe the maint. guy will be able to hook it up for her today. I also need to remember when I'm there tomorrow to have her write her rent check for June. Then I think I'll wait until next Saturday to go see her again--------that is her get out of jail day! LOL. I might take a day off work the following week, and see if we can go get her new ID card and bank account.

The dogs seem to be doing better, though we have yet to find the older dogs poops the past couple of days to actually see how they are. The other dog seems good now. Hopefully the continued medicine/treatment for the next few weeks will work.

While in the city tomorrow, I'm going to pick up more milk and bananas and a few things we're out of. That is the one handy thing about visiting her often, I can go to the store more often, LOL. There are still limits for the grocery pick up items, but now it doesn't seem a problem go get a time slot.

Today I need to do housecleaning. I didn't really get any done last weekend, of course. I need to figure out where to plant the 3 small lavender plants I bought a couple weeks ago. Not sure if I should put them in the ground or in a pot. I've never had lavender before. What's your suggestion?

A Friday that is acting like a Monday

Then my mom calls this morning and says she's not feeling well (as she has happen usually once or twice a week). Her forehead is all clammy/sweaty and she can't find her thermometer. I said well, it's in her bathroom somewhere, because we found 2 of them when unpacking. She called back and said it was 97. something, so then of course she felt better knowing that. I reminded her she has had this going on for 2-3 years now and she always says "well, this time it was worse" LOL. Within an hour or two she is always feeling better and by afternoon she usually forgets she didn't feel well that morning.

I know this has been an issue with her for awhile now and it was something that she was having happen quite often when she was supposed to drive down and visit her boyfriend and then she'd call him up in the morning and say she wasn't quite feeling well, so she wasn't going to come.  I thought maybe it was related to her obviously missing doses of her medications, and still not so sure it's not related. Since I got her taking them at least somewhat more regularly, starting last fall, she hasn't had nearly the number of these "episodes" and I have literally talked to her every single day since last Fall, after she moved into the senior living situation. I'd also say, since her BF passed on last December, she's hardly had many of these morning episodes.

I'm guessing it's just anxiety caused. I think she probably wakes up and starts worrying about stuff. She gets a little sweaty/clammy. She doesn't really seem to have a stomach ache or nausea or anything, when I've tried to get her to describe to me what she's feeling. Just feels a bit clammy and weak. Then she thinks she has a little fever, which she never does. An hour or two later, she's fine. When I try to remind her this is "normal" for her once or twice a week, she always thinks it's not or it's worse than usual. I called her at 2:30 this afternoon and she was totally fine and of course totally forgot about this morning.

Well, no paving done today. DH finally called the lady at the paving company. Oh, well the trucks (they get the asphalt from a different company) "got pulled" from us to go to another job is the excuse. More likely either they are on COD with the asphalt plant and can't pay for it yet or someone else they are behind on their job with, complained. DH got a little annoyed and said well, some communication as to what is going on and when this is going to get done would go a long way. We've had our car parked in our neighbors driveway all week now, as well as you've got your paving equipment parked on our neighbors property for 9 days now.......and he also said we have 2 other contractors who we are trying to schedule. The sprinkler system guy needs to run sprinklers to finish, but of course we don't want all this wet and him trying to do it the same time as paving.  DH is so mad right now. And now he gets to sit all weekend and stew about it. He kept telling me he "couldn't" call her to find out what is going on because then they just see him as the complaining jerk and then won't do a good job. I said that's crap. We have every right to call her up and ask what is going on....and if they don't do the job correctly, then we withhold payment until it is done to our satisfaction! Who cares if they don't like that they are being called to ask what is going on! I don't get why dh is such a wimp with this kind of stuff. He's certainly not with any other opinion he has, LOL.

Then when DH told her some communication would be good, she got a bit snippy and said we told you. DH said if anyone had told me I wouldn't be calling! The last we were told anything was when one of the workers left on Wednesday and said the head guy (her dh) said to tell you we aren't paving tomorrow, but Friday instead.

My (new) computer has been making this revving noise all week. It's getting on my nerves. I googled the issue and the suggestion was to go to task manager and processes and see what is using the most CPU and try to disable it. It's something called "Webroot SecureAnywhere". It's using like 30%, while everything else is barley using anything. I'm guessing the company IT dept put it on there (it's also showing on my office desktop) but why it's suddenly making the computer revving all the time, I don't know. But when I disabled it, it instantly stopped the revving. I'm going to leave it disabled for now. I'm not in the mood to be annoyed today. Nor am I in the mood to contact our IT dept and deal with it.

The good news of today is my electric bill just received for May is only $118. We should be down in the $100 range now for the next 4 months. We turned our a/c on last night for the first time as it was about 76 inside the house and not very comfortable. Our heat pump doesn't use much electricity to operate the a/c during summer, so that is really nice.

I'm planning to go see my mom again on Sunday. Will get her pill box filled up and then she's got thru next Friday for quarantine, though I don't know why they can't lift it Monday. The state is lifting that requirement, so if she had moved in on Monday, she wouldn't even have had to do the 14 days.

Contractors are a joke

The sprinkler system guy finally showed up yesterday afternoon - sorta. He was on his way somewhere else and we were on his way, but he had less than an hour to work on it and make sure it's all running properly. He got most of it done, but still needs to come back to finish! He's always telling dh (he's on old school friend from years ago) that he doesn't work his business on weekends, yet yesterday he was on his way to pick up a horse, for personal stuff, so we got shortchanged,during business hours, in getting this done - again. Then last night DH realized one of the sprinkler heads way out in front of our property had apparently gotten broken off when they put the sod down (same company) and it was leaking and leaking onto the driveway that was prepped for asphalt, making that area all soft. But because he was in such a hurry and didn't finish, he didn't see it was leaking. Always something!

I think the note on my mom's computer worked. Hopefully the internet equipment shows up today. But, now her new concern is some red spots on her arm. She's apparently had this for several years, off and on, and was prescribed some ointment. But when she mentioned it to me a month or two ago (that it was getting red again) she couldn't find the ointment, so I had some Cortaid delivered to her. When I got to her place last Thurs I looked at it. It's not really that bad. It doesn't hurt, nor does it itch. I reminded her to put the Cortaid on it. Oh? Do I have that? Sunday, in going thru all her bathroom stuff and throwing out all the expired stuff I found the tube of prescription stuff and told her to put a bit of that on. When I visited her Wed afternoon she showed me her arm, that she thought it was still all red. Honestly, it looked fine! Lots of brown (probably age spots) spots on her arms and only like 1 or 2 small red spots. She calls me up last night and says it's all red again and she only has "lotion" to put on it. I'm thinking she means just regular body/skin lotion, so I remind her about the cortaid or the tube of prescription stuff. Oh? Do I have that? (sigh). Then I say well, when your quarantine is over and your new insurance is in place we'll get to a doctor to have it checked out. She says well, they should let me go now to see a dr. I said well, unless it's an emergency, you have to do the 14 day quarantine. A doctors office is going to ask if you've been out of state in the past 14 days (they asked me that at my annual check up a couple weeks ago), so since it's not hurting or itching, just keep putting a bit of cortaid on it. I'll have to look up her medical records again and see if I can see what the dr. said it was in the notes. She was in for it a couple years ago, if I recall reading before.

Supposedly our driveway is getting paved today, but it's after 8:30am and no one has shown up yet. Just blows DH's mind how NO one around here starts work until 9am at the earliest. And then they quit early afternoon! When DH worked and was in construction he was always out of the house by 5:30 or 6am because the start time on jobs was 7am, at the latest. When they are said and done, it will have literally been less than 2 days of work, yet they've been invading our lives and our neighbors property since last Thursday! They brought a bunch of equipment in last Thursday morning. Parked the paving equipment on lot 1, which is owned by our neighbors who live on lot 2. Didn't ask anyone if it was ok. I'm guessing they took a long weekend and also took Friday off. Showed up here Tuesday and worked 3 hours. Showed up Wednesday and worked half a day. All the while leaving all their equipment here - trucks, grader, roller, etc. Thursday they came and picked some of that up. And like DH said, once they are done paving, they'll just let that equipment sit on neighbors lot until they need it for their next job, next week, so I'm sure it will sit there all weekend. Take your equipment and park it at the next job, instead of us looking at it another 3 days.

No fence guy, who was supposed to come Tuesday and no word from him. Once we are done with him and the sprinkler system guy we are D.O.N.E with all these piece of crap contractors. Any remaining projects are just small stuff DH will do himself. Our neighbors (who are on vacation this week) had started re-doing the strip of grass between our houses on their property. Killed all the natural grass and had some topsoil brought in and reseeded. Only the guy still needs to bring more topsoil for the rest of it, as only about half got done. Neighbor texted DH yesterday and asked if by chance any topsoil has gotten delivered like it was supposed to? Nope. This is the same contractor who did our site work.

Now it's almost 9 am by the time I finished writing this - still no paving crew.

Thursday this and that

I got the dogs prescribed medication picked up later yesterday morning, so I gave them the first dose (2x/day). When I got the previous prescription for the one dog, for 5 days, it was $20, so I figured the vet was doubling it to 10 days (he said he was having them take longer period) and now 2 dogs, so would cost $80. He's having them take for 14 days and it was $40 total, so apparently whether it's 5 pills or 28 pills, one bottle costs $20. Seems strange.

The paving crew worked another half day yesterday (doing prep work) and said they will pave on Friday now. Why not just get the prep done in one day? It's not like they left and went to another job after working 3 hours the first day. They left all their rakes, shovels, and equipment here.

One of the things we bought at Home Depot over the weekend (while we had DD's pickup) was another of the big metal shelving units. DH put it on the back wall of his new shed. He also put a bunch of hook things on the walls to having shovels and rakes, etc. We also gave DD/DSIL our floor/window vented a/c unit we had used at our house in town. We don't need it anymore and they can really use it in their 2 story house to help keep it cool during the hot summer days. DH also gave her a tote bin with a bunch of moving blankets it it. We still have lots of both left and he doesn't need to keep that many and I'm sure they can use for something off and on. Getting more stuff out of the shop and garage, little by little.

On my way in to see my mom yesterday afternoon, I stopped in the nearby Petsmart. I had ordered online, for curbside pick up, so that was handy and quick. The dogs need to be on FortiFlora for 30 days and that seemed to be the quickest way to get some, rather than waiting 8 days for Amazon or probably 4-5 days or more for an online pet store to ship. Hopefully this extended period of medications is going to fix these dogs problem. DH is also tired of trying to pick up soft or runny poop from the yard. He usually goes out every day to scoop poop. I'm sure some days it's nice when they go over on the vacant lot next to us (it's just wild overgrowth grassy and vegetation) and there's no poop to scoop, but that is also probably where they are eating deer poop, so we are trying to keep them in our yard.....HEY FENCE GUY-WHERE ARE YA?!! (he was supposed to come Tuesday....)

Older dog made it all night sleeping on the bed with us, without needing to go outside, so I think he's starting to at least have the diarrhea part go away. Last evening as I was out watering plants I saw a really normal poop in the lawn. I'm sure it was the other dog, but that's a big improvement over what he's been doing, too.

The weather here has turned nice and pleasantly warm. We ate dinner out on the front patio last night. There is a Mc'D's just outside of the city on the way home. I decided to give a try to getting some and seeing how it holds up in a hot/cold insulated bag for the remaining 30 minute drive. The burgers and chicken nuggets were fine. The fries were too cold and soggy. But, better than getting home at 6:30 and having to make dinner.

I need to get back into doing MTurks. I have not done any in over a week, with all the mom move stuff. I did just get a nice $2.30 bonus from one of the surveys I did.

Of course, I checked my mom's pill box when I got there. She had it sitting on her little dining table. She had taken all her morning pills, but had missed Tues evening (cholesterol) pill. Not bad, considering she is still trying to adjust to all the new surrounding and new things to remember. I left these 2 sticky notes. One on her computer screen and one on her door.

I did decide to add dates to the notes, so she'd have an idea of the "when". We'll see if that helps. I think next time I'm going to write some notes to stick on each pill bottle that says "take from pill box". I really think that will do the trick. She had one pill bottle that last summer or so her dr had told her to stop taking (one of her anxiety meds) and she had written on the bottle "do not take" and so every time she'd pick it up (because all the bottle look the same) she'd see that and then put it back in her cupboard. While we were unpacking, she saw that note on it again, so I just took the bottle home with me and discarded, so she doesn't have to keep coming across it.

Progress, I think :)

Around the homestead

In other news - the paving crew was here yesterday. DH was guessing it's at least a 2 day job. Well, that is if you actually worked a full day. They worked about 3 hours. Stopped and we assumed they went on a lunch break. Never returned the rest of the day! While we were in the city, after moving my mom in and on a break, out getting lunch, we stopped at Home Depot and loaded up DD's pickup with some shrubs and a couple few small trees. DH and I spent yesterday planting all the shrubs. Boy, that is a job digging holes in rocky ground. But, it's looking really nice to have some shrubs in.

The sprinkler system guy was supposed to be here yesterday too, but haven't seen him, as well as the fence guy. The gutter guy did finally show up so the gutters are on the shed/coop now.

Our dogs just will not get over this diarrhea stuff. I don't know what to do. The older dog is back to needing to go out during the night (2x last night) and then yesterday morning, while I was upstairs in my office and DH was outside talking to the paving guys, I guess he couldn't hold it and went on the floor (at least it was the hardwood floor part). The other dog's stool is either these tiny little hard long poops or soft. The younger dog just went through that 5 days the prior week of having an antibiotic for the diarrhea, that seemed to help for about a week. Then yesterday afternoon older dog had it outside again and there was blood in it. I called the vet and he called me back in a bit. He said the blood isn't a major worry - it's just the colon is aggravated by what is going on and blood comes out with the stool. He's putting both dogs on that antibiotic the other dog had been on (but only for 5 days) and doing a longer treatment period. He also wants me to give both dogs that Fortiflora for dogs for 30 days. I was going to order that via Amazon as it's offered via Prime. I share a Prime acct with DD and her address is the default. When I put it in the cart it showed it would arrive (at her address) on Thursday. When I changed it to my address.....8 FREAKING days! I see Petsmart in the city has it, so I will pick some up this afternoon when I go in to check on my mom.

Our neighbors are on vacation all week (I think they left last Friday), so it's working out good, because we need to use their driveway to park, in case we need to leave, while the paving job is happening. While we were outside Monday their dogs were outside the kennel. What in the heck?! Did the lady who comes and feeds them twice a day maybe left something open? We put them away and started to walk around their fenced in area to double check and next thing we know they are out again! There was door to the outside from their basement open. It has one of those handles you push down, so the dog must have figured out how to push down on it. We tried to lock it up, but the lock is broken and won't lock. We shut the interior door into the room, but it has same type of handle. When the feeding lady got there I went over and told her. She tried to block the downstairs door with stuff. We never saw them get out again, but when she came back to feed dinner she said it was open again. So, she said she blocked it with even heavier/more stuff. I don't think they've escaped again.

How do you leave your house for a week, knowing that it isn't locked up? Yikes. I couldn't do it. They did take the problem dog to boarding for this week, so "just" the 2 dogs right now. But, still, knowing they have a barking problem when they aren't home, they didn't put the bark collars on them  this week.


We have this bird annoying the heck out of us the past few days! It's a Western Bluebird

He is constantly at our back windows...trying to get in or what I don't know. DH thinks he thinks it a mate he's trying to get to, seeing his reflection in the glass. He starts in about 6am and you can hear his beak tapping the glass as he flutters right in front of the window. Or he sits on the stone ledge below the window, looking in.

As I was looking out at him the other day I see the flash of bright yellow fly by and land in a nearby tree. What a colorful bird I have never seen before. Figured out it's a Western Tanager. So pretty!

When we lived in town our back yard had a bunch of these "red winged blackbirds". I have never seen one out here at our new place, only 10 miles from our previous home. I had liked to listen to these birds

(not my pictures, I pulled these off the internet).


So, I think I now know what my mom was telling my uncle about "she would like a bigger place". In talking with my mom Tuesday morning, she brought up that she really likes the place and the size of the kitchen and that she can have her table in the kitchen (instead in living room) and the size of the bedroom - all exactly what I was thinking! She apparently doesn't like that the kitchen doesn't at least have a stove top and that is what she wanted to ask if there was another unit that does (that is what she must have meant in talking to uncle). I told her no, unfortunately, they are all kitchens like that. I told her I'll bring her our extra little microwave we have and she had a good idea to put in on a cart next to the end of her sink/countertop area, kind of in the corner of her living room, where there is space. I said that's a great idea and usually those carts have extra storage underneath, which will help with storage. She also mentioned she likes how the bedroom is much bigger than what she had.

I'm taking off early from work and going in to see her this afternoon. Any bets on if she's actually taking her medicine from her pill box correctly?  We'll see. That's one of the main reasons I want to go in and see her. If she hasn't gotten it done, I'm taking her pill bottles with me and only leaving her pill box.

oh lordy

I'm hoping that the quarantine for my mom will only have to go through 6/1, as that is the date the state is lifting that order. That would shorten her lockdown time by 4 days. But, we're on day 4 so it's moving along.

When I called her yesterday morning about 10am she had a knock on her door and it was their maint. guy with the cable tv remote to get her channels working, so that was good. She called me back after he left and then I asked about her morning medications and she started to kind of say she took them, then said yes, I have to take them, so I said ok..remember you need to take them out of your pill box. For Monday. Then she couldn't find her pillbox (that she had decided the day before to leave on her night stand). It was in the bathroom and no, she hadn't taken them. We chatted a bit more but before I hung up I told her I need her to take them right now, while I'm on the phone with her.  I'm seriously thinking about (for now) just taking her pill bottles home with me and only leaving her the pill box filled.

Apparently the "guest" wi-fi didn't stay connected, as she couldn't get on the internet yesterday and it would have been too hard for me to try to explain to her how to sign into the guest wi-fi again, so I told her she's just going to have to wait until I can get her own internet service hooked up. Well, I guess she forgot that, as several hours later, yesterday afternoon, I guess she called down to the front desk to tell them she couldn't get on the internet. They sent up a young gal to see, who was totally confused, because she didn't realize my mom doesn't even have service yet. I was confused at first because I didn't realize my mom called them about it. Finally, I had to explain to my mom again that WE have to get that service on our own, through the phone company, and I can't call and do that until Tuesday morning.

I called first thing this morning and they will send the modem/cable box out via FedEx and then her apt. maint is supposed to install it for her. The lady said it's a bigger box, so she'll get lots more  tv channels then she is getting now with the tiny box that was already in the room, as well as internet. She gets their apt. group rate, so it's only $22 a month for the internet. Hopefully it will be here in a few days. They also offer mobile service to bundle with her internet that is only $14/mo (she's paying $33 now) so that might be something I look into down the road. At some point her years old flip phone is going to give out.

Then last night my uncle texts me that my mom told him the apartment is too small and she wants a bigger apartment, so she is going to talk to me about it. OMFG (yes! I did swear to myself!). The apartment size is fine. It's a little bit smaller than what she had, but actually feels bigger because her bedroom is way bigger and her kitchen area is big and open so she is able to have her small table and 2 chairs in the kitchen, rather than in her living room, like she had to do in her other place. The problem with the place is just not enough storage/cupboards in kitchen and bathroom. But, I kept reminding her we can add some storage by getting her an over the toilet shelving unit and can also put a tall vertical shelving unit inside her long kitchen closet.

We'll see if she says anything to me about it. She's stuck there at least a couple months as she has a 3 month lease. Not to mention I am DONE moving for awhile! 4 moves in the last 4 years is way past my limit.  I looked up the sq ft of her apartment before and now. It is a bit smaller, but when I sent her the information on the 4 senior living places here, with rates for 1 bedroom units and links so she could check them out. She said she was most interested in this place (I'm sure because it was quite a bit cheaper) so I said I'll check it out first and see. After I got the tour I told her it's a nice place, BUT the apartment is a bit smaller than what you have now. She assured me that was ok, because she got rid of one of her recliners and a dresser. Plus, the apartment she got is a bit bigger than I looked at because we opted for the one with no balcony, so that made the bedroom bigger.

AND it's the same size as her BF's apartment he had - and she basically lived here with him for like 6 weeks, before he had to move to nursing care home, because she was caring for him. And it was 2 of them living in it! His bedroom (with like queen or double bed) was a little box. She had no problem with that size. Her current bedroom, even if she had a double/queen bed in it, (she has twin), still has lots of room and spacious. I had tried to get her to get a bigger bed at her other place, but she didn't want to because the bedroom wasn't very big. I have a feeling it's not the size, but the lack of cabinets and counter space that she's not liking. The only crappy part is the big wall in the kitchen, across from her sink, fridge and cupboards, where she has her table and still room for say a little cart she could put her coffee maker and toaster on....there is no plug in outlet! So stupid. Really limits what you can use that area for.

The other little issue, while she is quarantined, is that they are bringing everyone's meals to their apt's right now, 3x a day with those carryout containers that she has to throw away. Her little kitchen garbage can fills right up by the end of the day, but she can't leave to take her garbage down to the main garbage area, so I have emailed about that.

She's paying $2800/mo for this place. The other places were $3500-$4000, so pretty big difference. And I just looked again and still not very much bigger apartment size than she just got into. UGH!

Settling in

My plan yesterday was to go see my mom at 11am and spend at least a couple hours with her. She called at 9am to ask what time I was coming. She said she wasn't feeling very well (common for her some mornings, I have found) and was going to go back to bed for awhile, so if I didn't want to come today I didn't have to. I told her I was coming in to the city as I had a grocery order to pick up after I visited her. I told her I was at least stopping by for a bit to check on her. (either way I was going to see her)

First I stopped at Target to get her some more multivitamins. By the time I got to her place and checked in, it was about 11:15. She seemed pretty good, said she just felt "warm" but she had no temperature. She gets a bit "clammy". This is common with her. I think she just gets a bit nervous or could also be that we don't know if she took her meds on Saturday or not. I'm sure she didn't sleep all that great, either, being new place. Before I left on Saturday I had filled up her pill box and had put it on her nightstand. When she called me yesterday morning (she had already had breakfast) I asked her if she had taken her morning pills yet and she said she was just about to. I reminded her she needed to take them from the pill box.

When I got there she had all her pill bottles lined up on top of her little medicine cabinet, below her bathroom mirror (we had originally put them in the medicine cabinet) and her pill box for Sunday was still full. She said she forgot about the pill box and thought she must have taken them from the bottles...ugh. No idea if she did or not, so just had to go with it. I went over it again, that she just needs to take her pills from the pill box only and we put her pills in a bathroom drawer. When I call her later this morning I will make her take them from the pill box while I am on the phone with her.

But she was feeling fine when I got there. She had 2 small boxes of bathroom stuff. I literally ended up getting rid of at least half of it. All expired dates of OTC stuff. Some dating back to 2015. She has less bathroom and kitchen cabinet space in this place and she was worried where she was going to put all the stuff - but after being able to get rid of most of it, she has room now. Oh, and in all the bathroom stuff I found her bottle of multivitamins. The ones I bought in December that she should have been just about/or out of around now (which is why I thought she didn't have any more). Nope. She barely used them, of course. Even though I had put them, originally, with all her daily meds and they were on the list of medicines/times taped to her inside cabinet.

Same with the kitchen. We started a box for Goodwill (which she will hopefully remember that is what it's for and not unpack it!). Put in several coffee cups, some small pans and lids (she has no oven or stovetop in this place) and an old hand operated beater. Later she pulled that out of the box (I think she had forgotten already this was stuff to give away) and says "do I need this?" I'm like no, I really don't think you are going to be needing to whip anything, LOL.

About all she has left to find a place for is her towels and wash cloths. There isn't a linen closet (weird) but there is a shelving unit on one of her (2) bedroom closets, next to her bathroom door, that I told her can be used for those. She will have to get rid of some towels, for sure. Plus this place supplied 2-3 sets, as part of the housekeeping they will wash towels and they provided 2 sets of sheets they will wash, too.

While she still doesn't have tv, until they get her the remote to go with the cable, I did get her some internet. Free, haha. I remember the lady who gave me the tour had said the residents have to get their own internet and phone service, but that there is free wifi in the common areas. Well,  she must be close enough to common area (there is a library sitting room next to her apartment) because I was able to use the guest wifi and get her computer on the internet. So, at least now she can check her emails, bank account, etc. I'm just going to see how that works for her and if it's fine, I'm not even going to have her pay for internet service. 

I stayed until about 1:20. Took down some garbage for her. With them having to eat in their rooms she quickly fills up with those styrofoam containers and only has a small garbage can - and she can't leave her room to go empty it!

I couldn't remember but there is a salon there for hair cuts. She needs one! You can tell she's tried to trim the back of her hair herself, LOL. Once she is out of quarantine - that's a first visit :)

She did seem better yesterday in that she wasn't confused. forgetful yes, but not confused, so that is better, at least.

Moving Day 2 & 3

That was an even longer, more tiring day. I stayed in a hotel near my mom's place on Thursday night and actually slept really good. This time the hotel was quiet and no noisy neighbors, like when DD and I stayed there last December.

DD and her DH got there right at 8am. We checked in (temperatures, all that jazz) and no uncle yet, so DSIL, helped me get the tv into the big moving box I brought and took apart mom's bed frame. Still waiting for uncle. Then at 8:30 he called lost. He was just a couple of streets away, but still took him until almost 9 to get there. We got it all loaded, with room to spare in the uhaul trailer (some of the stuff went in the bed of their truck/canopy, behind their seats and in the back of my car. It took us about 2 hours and we got on the road.

About 7 1/2 hours later (more stops with mom to use restrooms and we went thru a McDonald's drive thru for lunch) we got to my house (lost an hour in the time change) at 7:40pm. EXHAUSTED! We just had sandwiches. Mom went up to bed about 8:30. I made it until like 9:30. I think DD, DSIL, and DH stayed up chatting awhile longer.

We didn't rush too much this morning. I figured we'd be ready about 9 or 9:30 to leave and it was a little after 9. By the time we all checked in (temperatures, all that jazz) we got busy at 10-ish and were done unloaded in about 2 hours or a little less.

Mom is of course overwhelmed, to say the least, and her memory is super bad. At some points, comments she'd make I'm not sure she even quite knew exactly where she was or where we live, etc. DH was of course coming with this morning to help and she says something like "well, then what's he going to do? fly home?" No, we're only about 40 minutes from your new apartment.....

She is quarantined in her room for maybe 14 days. They said 14 days, but the governor of our state is lifting that on June 1st, so should be 9 days, but when I asked the front desk gal didn't seem to know that. But, they said as her "caregiver" I can come and see her during this time. Otherwise I think I would have just had her do the quarantine for coming from out of state at my house. Mom's having trouble remembering that she has to stay in her apartment these next 2 weeks. But, honestly, it's really not much different then she's been doing for almost 2 months! The only time she ever left her apartment was just to go downstairs and get her mail.

DD, DH, DSIL left and I stayed there about another 2 hours. Just decided she needs some rest and I'll go back tomorrow. At one point in chatting I said, when your quarantine time is over we'll got out and do shopping and show you around town. She says "oh and I'd like to see your house, I don't think I've seen it yet, have I?" (she just stayed there last night). Another time she said something like "well, now I'm moved over here - when are you guys going to get moved over here?" Once I remind her, then she's like oh, right, of course.

She just needs a few days of rest and get into a little routine. It's always really bad when she's overwhelmed. The people met so far all seem so nice and her apartment is nice, her bedroom is bigger than she had before. The only thing is very short on kitchen counter and cabinets/drawers. Same with bathroom. We'll probably need to get a little creative and get her some more storage or shelves. She has a nice view of mountains on the other side of the town.

During this Covid time, of course they are bringing all the residents their meals  to their apartments, and all the meals are included in her rent. She's not quite "liking" that she "has" to take a meal, what if she doesn't feel like eating or fixing a bowl of cereal on her own instead. At her other place they were bringing up meals, but she had to call each meal and let them know if she wanted it. Here, they just bring it. I told her eat what she feels like and don't worry if she can't finish it or doesn't want it once in awhile and told her once this quarantine time is over, meals will be served in the dining room and if she doesn't want to go down, she doesn't have to. She was like oh, ok. that makes sense. (but she's probably forget and mention it again tomorrow)

BUT, the hardest part is OVER! Now, it's just the settling in/adjustment time.

Moving Day 1

Typing from my iPad mini so excuse the typos or auto correct words

Heckofa long day. After a 7 hour drive I got to moms at 12:15. She had about 3 small boxes packed and that was it. A bunch of paperwork spread out on her desk and table. Yikes. First I stacked all the papers and told her were not going to have time to go through all this so I'm just putting it all in her filing cabinet and we can go through it after she unpacks. Oh but in stacking the paperwork I did find the one she was supposed to mail back to her investment broker along with the envelope they sent. She had signed it but never put it in the envelope and mailed it back.

Then I grabbed a box and started wrapping up cups. Why she still has 10 coffee cups I don't know. She has rolls and rolls of paper towels she will never use up si I used a couple of those to wrap dishes in and filled up two boxes. Done with dishes. Then I looked in her fridge and freezer. OMG. Her freezer was stuffed with foil wrapped mystery leftovers from meal after meal. She cant eat all they give her but can't throw it out so puts it in the freezer thinking she'll eat it later. She didn't have a lot in her fridge but the majority of it must have been stuff she brought from her house move 8 months ago. All expired food. A partial package of wrapped cheese slices....dated 2018! It was crazy. That is something she would never ever have let get like in the past.

Her bedroom and bathroom weren't too bad. She had put most of her bathroom stuff in 2 boxes. I took what she had on her dresser and put in the drawers. Took all her shoes in her closet and put in an empty suitcase. She has like 6 extra bed pillows no need for. Will have to figure out how to get rid of. I doubt goodwill takes those. She has like 4 Christmas decor items up on closet shelf. I wrapped in towels and put in her empty hamper.

Once I got busy with it all it really didn't take as long as I thought. Pretty much done by 2:30. Then she wanted to go to her bank. She had two checks to cash and wanted to just get the cash of $93 the checks were. Went inside the store where her bank is and see they have closed this branch for good. Drive 3 miles to another one. She comes back out. She can't cash them without id. She apparently cut up her drivers license when she got rid of her car! Thinking she had no need for it. So ended up just filling out a deposit slip and deposit through drive through.  Now I gotta figure out how to get her some ID.

 We had dinner brought up to her room as she's been having to do for weeks now,  eh. It wasn't that good but the dressert of white chocolate bread pudding in caramel sauce and pecans was delicious. I got to my hotel room around 7 and took a shower and am dead tired. Going to sleep. Another super long day tomorrow.

the calm before the storm

It doesn't sound like my company will be furloughing anyone one day a week, now. My boss was given incorrect information (by both our payroll company and also an HR consultant she still uses) on our eligibility. She had been told that by furloughing the employees one day a week, each employee would get 1/5th of what their weekly unemployment benefit is, plus the $600 federal. That's not how it works. Our earnings for the 4 days a week are taken into account and deducted from the benefit amount. Everyone earns more in the 4 days than the total weekly benefit amount.  Not to mention, as several of you pointed out - in my case, I'd have to claim my self employed income from my side job, making me even more ineligible. I just feel bad for my boss (and upper management) who spent a lot of time trying to decide on this, figure this out and get correct info, etc, only to realize it wasn't correct. I guess how this all came about is one of our employees, who has children and is single mom, asked/volunteered to go down to 26 hours a week (because she has no child care now), as she thought she would get state unemployment and the $600. Our managers got to thinking that would be a plan to do for everyone (though just for one day), and save the company some money. After yesterdays news, my boss realized even that employee won't be eligible for anything, even at 26 hours a week. I guess they go back to the drawing board. They can't be in that bad of shape - we did get 1.2 million in the SBA "loan", that doesn't have to be repaid. They did layoff 5 or 6 people going into this, which is a big savings on payroll, plus we have no debt going into this and do have a large line of credit available, in an emergency.

I have today off, just to kind of relax and get a few things done around the house. Take a nap. Get to bed early. Try to work on MTurks. I figured I'll need a good rest day to gear up for the next few days. I'm getting on the road tomorrow morning at 6am. With the 7 hour drive and gaining an hour in the time zone, I should be at my mom's at noonish. If she hasn't gotten much packed, well then that's what I'll be doing the rest of the day!

DH can't finish up some things he's still working on because all the damn contractors are a joke. The guy doing the couple hours gutter job on the shed was supposed to come 2 weeks ago. Then this week. Get this - he can't install rain gutters in the rain, LOL. Now he supposedly coming next week. The paving crew is now 2 weeks late, and while we've had some rain, nothing major (until today, LOL). The sprinkler system guy is still a no show, even with DH texting or leaving him a message about once a week. I told DH last night (and I've had to say this to him before) rather than just say hey, I still need you out here to finish the job. say hey, I need to know what date you are coming!

One of the neighbor dogs came over and put his nose up to the chicken coop wire and got pecked, haha. He took off back home.

I am tired of this crappy weather we've had for a week or more. We don't usually get this much cloudy rainy days. Most of the rain is overnight and the days have mostly been dry/cloudy but today is pouring and tomorrow is supposed to be same. That'll make for a crappy drive. I really do not want to have to load and unload my mom's things in the rain. Praying the weather forecast is right on both ends and Friday and Saturday are dry, at least.

Strange times indeed

Well, life might get even more strange. My company is thinking of furloughing every employee one day a week for the next 8 weeks. Knowing we are facing income shortage in the coming months, because while income from previous months jobs is still coming in as normal right now, the income that will be coming in a couple of months for these past couple of months orders are going to be way down. Doing this furlough for one day per week will save the company about $150k over the next 8 weeks, while at the same time the employees would actually be making more money than they would working! Craziness. Apparently the $600/week extra federal unemployment is $600 a week, even if you aren't working for one day. So, like in my case, between regular state unemployment for the 1 day a week, plus the $600. It sounds like it would work out to about an extra $400 a week. Who couldn't use that?! Still just all seems strange and a bit surreal.They haven't decided yet, but my boss called me yesterday morning to tell me, see how I felt about it (as an employee) and also discuss how it might impact doing payroll/extra work in regards to that.

I said as an employee it first hits me as a bit scary news. Like what else is coming? When she first told me the plan, she didn't say for how long. I said I would feel better knowing how long you think this will be needed? She said through 7/25, when the extra federal $600/week ends. She said if it wasn't also a benefit to the employee they wouldn't be thinking of doing it, but with the savings in salaries over the next 2 months, it would help to offset some of the reduction in income the company will be facing. I told her that presented to the employees as what is good for the company is good for the employees, bottom line. The extra income in unemployment is a benefit to the employees, as well as a day off each week. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do. The more I thought it over the more I realized if it's going to get worse, it's going to get worse no matter what, so might as well take advantage of the extra income right now, if possible, I guess.

As I expected, this is going to be rough week with my mom and her memory/confusion. As moving day (Friday) approaches she's getting more and more overwhelmed and then can't remember stuff. My uncle was talking to her about lunch time yesterday and said she was all confused on which day she was moving, thought maybe it was Saturday. So, I called her and she said she was confused a bit on which days, so I told her I'll be over there on Thursday, but we are moving you out on Friday morning. Then she said my uncle mentioned Saturday, so that's where she got confused, LOL. I'm sure he didn't. He knows what day it's happening, as he is coming to help Friday morning. She did write the info down, so maybe that will help (but not usually). I'm sure all this week and next week is going to be tough with her memory, until she gets relaxed and settled in her new place. She's just trying to figure out every little detail, so she's overwhelming herself. But, the more I try to fill her in on all the little details and answers, the more overwhelmed she still gets, so can't remember most of what I told her anyway. It's kind of a catch-22. It's like you'd think explaining things to her and how it's all being taken care of would put her mind at ease, but with so much on her mind, she literally forgets 10 minutes later that you just told her. And if she writes it down on one of her many little slips of paper, of course it's buried/lost shortly and she forgot she even wrote it all down.

Going to be a busy week ahead

Sunday was almost as hard work/busy as Monday. Probably mostly because I had sore muscles from Saturday, still. We have sloping lawn behind the shop so he had created these rock drain fields where the gutter drain pipe had been placed under the ground on each corner of the back of the shop and then came back out into these rocky sections to drain. But it was hard to mow around so he decided to angle them out a bit more. He took out some sod. He had this area of rocks near the chicken coop he wanted out of there and was putting the sod in there. Only it wasn't just pick up all the rocks (various sizes) and throw in the wheelbarrow. No, he had me sort sizes, LOL. The smaller stuff I took and put along the base of shed, between the foundation and lawn was about 12 inches of dirt space. The larger rocks I put in the wheel barrow and he filled in where he removed sod.

Right in back of the shed is basically a small rock wall. Down below is a natural area. One of the pine trees had a bunch of dead branches on the bottom that look ugly so we cut those off. Looks a little nicer and cleaner in that area now.

Instead of weeding the rest of the island by hoe or hand dh decided to just use the weed whacker on it. That half of it was mostly tall grasses. He whacked it all down and I raked it all up. Then he sprayed weed killer on that half. Hopefully that will do the trick. There is a big tree on that end of it and enough room for one or two more plants. I think I'm just going to try putting one lilac bush there. They get pretty big, eventually.

I ran into town to the hardware store and bought some eye hooks for the hanging plants. We put the 4 that are in coco lined baskets hanging from the front porch cover. The 5th one was a wood hanging planter that I put fuchsia in and we hung that on the corner of the chicken coop.

By then I was done and it was 3pm, so I at least got to rest the remainder of the day. DH had some weed and feed leftover from our previous yard, so he used that on an area where the seeded grass is still growing/trying to fill in. He also put our old "antique" push mower down in the back yard, in between the little group of trees (where he used to have some firewood stacked).

Dinner was a steak. Those steaks I received are large, so this time I just made one and we shared it. I tried a "Knorr's pasta sides" with it. Yuck. Won't be buying those again.  At 7pm we watched a movie on Netflix called Badlands and had root beer floats for dessert. Not a bad movie, a bit slow moving, but a decent way to spend a couple hours. Better than watching the news.

DH is just annoying to try to do anything with. He's great at working and getting stuff done, but he'll ask me how I want something or where I want something. So, I'll tell him and every single time he then has to tell me I'm wrong. Example. He brought out the zero gravity lounge chairs from storage and was unfolding them. I went out to the back patio to help and wipe them off. He says he still needs to get the other 2 folding chairs (look similar to the lounge chairs, but just regular folding patio chairs). I point to in front of our bedroom french doors and say put the lounge chairs there and the other chairs here in front of the great room patio doors (where we already have a 2 seat wood chair sitting). He says if the lounge chairs are over there (in front of bedroom patio doors) they'll get rained on....(the only covered section is in the middle, in front of our great room patio doors). Fine, put them under the covered part then and put the 2 regular chairs out on the front door covered patio area. (rolling eyes). As I'm wiping those chairs off, I say "if we are getting a dining patio table and chairs, like we've been wanting, to put out on the back patio in front of the dining room french doors, they will get wet too, if it rains.........so what do you want to do then?" Finally he realizes that oh, I guess the chairs, with the mesh type fabric are ok in the rain. I said yes, they are supposed to be weather resistant/water proof. I said all the outdoor dining sets the chairs are either the mesh fabric or the kind with fabric covered cushions. Obviously they must be able to get wet.

He asks me where I want to hang the hanging baskets. I tell him and then he tells me where they should go. I don't even bother anymore. I just say ok, sure that works fine, too (because it was literally 3 inches from where I had "in general" said put them up here).  Just like with the plants we planted on Saturday. Says tell me where you want these holes dug and then when I do he has to tell me I'm wrong. He does this with just about everything, LOL. After all these years I don't even bother to argue with him. Once in a while I'll say then why do you even bother to ask me what I want?

I've been getting a bit nervous that my mom isn't going to be mostly packed when I get there Thursday. But she called yesterday and finally got a bunch of boxes from her place. Probably extras from kitchen shipments or office deliveries. I may just bring a few of our tote bins we used for moving with me. If we don't end up needing them, they don't take up much room all stacked together.

The dahlia is close to blooming already :) (even if it is in the wrong spot!)

Saturday busy

Yesterday was a busy one. After I cleaned up the kitchen and loaded up the dishwasher I went outside to start to tackle the weed mess in the driveway island. We were thinking of planting some wild flower seeds in the island. A hoe and some fairly wet/soft ground made it a little easier I think, but hard work. I got about 1/3 or so done but hadn't yet picked up all the weeds (that were now mixed in with big clumps of dirt) when Dh came out and wondered if we were still going to take the drive to the small town nursery about 45 minutes drive.

It was a sunny day with some clouds and perfect for a drive in the mountains. Just beautiful. Mountains, trees, a river, the pasture areas all green. This town is about twice as big as our little town. The little nursery was busy with folks, which was nice to see. It actually felt like normal life going on.

The only problem with most of the day is that dh was being a total crab (started a day or two before) so anything I said to him I got one word answers. Next door to the nursery is a big gift shop type of thing, which I would have loved to go browse in, but with his mood I didn't even mention it. Walking around a nursery and picking out the flowers and plants is so enjoyable to me and I could spend a good hour or more just looking and picking out stuff, but when he's with me I feel rushed and like he's annoyed if I stop to look or look to read the plants info.

My friend I got the chickens from asked me to pick her up 3 lavender plants. That was about the only thing that DH perked up on as I was handing him them to put in the box he was carrying. He liked the smell and I grabbed another one and said one for me and he said get more. As I was looking around he did also grab 2 strawberry plants. I also bought a few perennials to get us started with our landscaping. I got 2 peony's, 2 dahlia's and some kind of lilly. They didn't have any of the greenery type of shrubs we want to put in, like boxwood or the small pine shrubs, so we will just have to get those at Lowes or Home Depot like we did for our previous house. It's like he felt like he had to pick what they had for our shrubs, rather than not get anything there. I finally just said they don't have what we want for shrubs, we'll just have to get them at Home Depot like before.

As we were getting in the car I looked at my phone and had missed a text 8 minutes earlier from friend asking if we were still at the nursery. I texted back, but no reply. Figured she must have thought of something else for me to pick up. Waited a a few and then tried to call her, but no answer. After about 15 minutes we decided to leave. We dropped the lavender plants off at her house, but no one was home. We figured they must have went up to the old mining camp they care take and were out of cell range. I heard from her later, they were up cutting firewood and out of cell range. She asked me what she owed me for the plants and I said nothing - I owe you for chickens!

When we got home DH set me up an old table outside as a potting bench. He also put a piece of plywood over the sawhorses next to it and set all the plants on it, for easy reach. I got out all my hanging baskets and various pots and got them filled up. I did pretty good guessing how many annuals to get. Then we realized we had no hooks, LOL. My potting area was at the back laundry room door, near the chicken coop, so the whole time I was working it was nice to listen to the chickens cluck and coo.

I then decided to plant the perennials out in the island, instead of wild flowers. DH came out to help me but first we needed to get the weeds picked up. He complained to me the whole time I shouldn't have started on this today, now we had to finish it (no we didn't) because it was going to rain Sunday. I said well if I didn't get most of it done today, the only non rain day for the next week, I wouldn't get to it for maybe 2 more weeks. I'm going to be busy moving my mom next weekend. Then he complained I did it wrong. He didn't want all the clumps of dirt that the weeds were attached to in the wheelbarrow. I did it wrong (though he couldn't tell me how it should have been done, it had to be done with a hoe, they wouldn't pull out the roots by hand). I started just sifting a bit through the clumps and picking up mostly weeds and shortly after they were all in the wheelbarrow (rolling eyes). I put the pots where I wanted him to dig holes spacing them out as much as possible. These are new to me plants, so I'm not exactly sure how fast they get big, etc.  Well, then he had to tell me I planted them wrong, too close together, etc. He knows even less than me about anything to do with plants. Good grief. I said well, they can always be kept trimmed down in size if they get too big - I do have garden cutting shears (again rolling eyes).

Anyhow, I think it looked nice when we got done. My small pots of annuals don't "fit" at this house. The house is too big and the pots too small LOL. They aren't in proportion. I need some big planter pots or big planter boxes, so will have to work on that.

By the time we got done it was dinner time. I was pooped. DH decided to go out and mow the lawn. I was sore and tired, so I took a shower and just made myself a bowl of cereal and had a leftover blueberry muffin. Sat in the recliner and watched a show on my ipad. Then I heard dh had stopped mowing and was talking. I looked out and a friend was driving by and stopped in to say hi for a few minutes. When dh was done he got the fire going to burn up his scraps. I brought him out a salad and sandwich. I didn't stay out there as I didn't think getting smoke in my healing eye was a good idea. This morning my shoulders are very sore, from using the hoe. I still have a bit more to do out there - ugh! LOL.

I still have a few plants to figure out where to plant or what to plant in. I'm not sure if I should plant the lavender in a pot or in the ground. I will probably need another bag of potting soil. My friend had asked if I got to look around the big gift store and I told her no, Ill have to make a trip out there again sometime to do that and she said we'll have to go together sometime, so that would be fun.

Weather, working and what not

Yesterday was fairly sunny and nice weather wise. Today is pouring rain. The mason guy came yesterday, instead of Saturday, and finished all up. Took him about half the day.

I went into town and picked up the medication for the other dog - who's having the soft stools/sometimes diarrhea. 5 days of 2x a day. Some kind of antibiotic that works on the diarrhea. Let's hope. The other dog didn't have any of his "accidents" yesterday, of course once I called the vet about it, he stops doing it. A week post op and his incision is healing very nicely. I stopped giving him the pain pills. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and might as well keep those pills on hand. And who knows maybe being on those pills was causing his little accidents. The vet says no, so maybe it's just coincidence that I stopped giving them to him and he stopped having the accidents. I actually gave one to the other dog the other day. He's out of shape now and the first day dh mowed the lawn on the tractor, he of course wanted to do what he had always done for years...follow dh around while dh has the chuckit and throws the ball for him as he's riding around. He over did it, and especially because he seemed to want to play the most on the hill up and down. His right front leg was pretty sore for several days and was almost better and then when mason guy brought his dog last week, they played and roughhoused all day and he strained his leg again. I'm sure it didn't feel good to him, so I figured since I wasn't using all the pills up for the other dog, I'd give him one after dinner a few days ago, when he was still limping a bit.

I had a really good MTurk day yesterday with almost $24 earned. Today is payday. Bills have now been paid online and money budgeted.

I am loving my chickens. "Queenie" is quite brave and always wants to come over to me when I go in the coop. Last evening she even let me pet her a bit. She'd run off but then come right back. I had given them a little bit of lettuce. She was taking it out of my hand, but then the others would steal it from her, LOL. I haven't decided completely, but I'm thinking other names will be Gladys, Penny, and Agnes. We have this old wooden ladder that is too old to stand on anymore. Mostly would be good for a yard decoration and put plants on it. DH put it in the coop and the chickens seem to like sitting on the bottom step of it or underneath it. He's also going to go down to the river bank, once the weather clears up and the river goes down some and find a piece of driftwood log to put in their coop to hang for them to sit on. But, right now the river is still a bit too high with spring run off.



We had 3 deer visit our backyard last night  about 9pm. Always a neat sight. (until they are eating your plants and shrubs you don't want them to eat!). We haven't planted anything yet, though.

Boy mail and delivery is slow. My mail order prescription took like 7 days. On the 5th I mailed out a check for my side job company for an employee expense reimbursement. As of Wed he still hadn't received it, 8 days later. He emailed me at the end of the work day yesterday he still hadn't rec'd it, so I told him I'll stop payment and put a replacement check in the mail in the morning. Then I got an email from him last evening that it showed up in his mail. My boss said she mailed one of our rent checks from the office and it took like 8 days. An Amazon Prime order I just placed has a week delivery time. So much for paying for the "Prime" 2 day shipping annual fee, eh?

I think our plan tomorrow, since it's supposed to be the only decent weather day again for many days, is to drive out to this nursery plant place in small town about 30-40 minutes away. My friend with the chickens had just gone there to get all her flowers and plants and said they also had trees. And a neat gift shop next door. I told her we were going to try to go Saturday, so she asked me to pick her up 3 lavender plants, if I could.

Well, back to work. I am not feeling it today. I miss my half day (every other) Fridays.

Lots of to do's

I'm trying to take care of a bunch of items on my "to-do" list. I looked to see what prescriptions of my mom's I could renew right now and got that done, so they'd deliver before she moves and still be under her current insurance/doctor plan. She should be good now for a bit, giving me time to find her a new doctor after the move. I asked my dr (a PA) if their office sees elderly/geriatric and she said yes. They have a new Dr. on staff who she said would be good, if my mom prefers a dr. to a PA. So, we'll probably give them a try. I've been happy with this office the 3 years I've been going there. They are also part of the larger local hospital network.

I reserved my hotel room for next Thursday. I'm sure during this time, there's probably no shortage of rooms, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Originally, I was going to stay in the "guest apartment" her place had made available to rent to overnight guests, but because of the virus situation, they aren't offering it right now.

My mom's latest concern seems to be with her current cable/internet and if she needs to cancel. I'm like 99% positive it's paid for through her rent/by the apartment place. The bill I looked at when I visited her several months ago was like a billing statement but showed zero balance owed. She has never had anything charged to her credit card or checking account since she's lived there. But, she's not sure and keeps asking me. I keep telling her when I get there next Thursday we'll check into it with the manager and we can cancel then, if need be. I'm sure since it's covered under their account, they will take care of canceling it when she moves out.

And I need to get her new cable/internet scheduled to hook up. At her new place she does have to pay for it. That is on my today to do's.  And I need to get her signed up with a new medicare advantage plan to start 6/1.

DH is taking a little break on projects, but he did go into the town lumber store and get some new saw blades, as he's worn his out with all the shed/coop building. He also picked up a spring loaded hinge thing for the chicken coop door, so that when I go inside it stays shut and the chickens can't accidentally get out. I am not a good chicken catcher! LOL.

Our neighbors are re-doing their area of grass in between our properties. Theirs has always been just kind of natural grass, not nice lawn like in front of their house. But, after we put in the sod along our side they want theirs to match (as it all kind of blends in together) so they sprayed something to kill the old grass and are now getting some topsoil put down. They had a couple of young teenage guys come yesterday and they did quite a bit of it.

I've been hit and miss with my days on doing MTurk work. Some days I just don't feel like it, though the days I make an attempt I seem to have no problem earning my $8/day goal.

My dogs incision area on his back seems to be healing nicely, though he's been having this odd new "problem" with pooping just a tiny bit in the house. I don't know if it started when he had his surgery or just before, I can't remember. But we'll find this little drop of poop on the floor every so often. The most common place (off and on the last several days) has been on DH's side of the bed - we are guessing it's when he jumps down to get up in the morning he squirts it out?! TMI, I know, but it's such a strange thing he's never done before. It wasn't there when DH went to bed or when DH got up a couple times during the night to use the bathroom, but dog usually jumps off the bed on his side when he gets up in the morning. I'm not sure why this is happening. I'm hoping maybe it's just something to do with the surgery or the pain meds I've been having to give him? He gave me like 10 days of the pain med, to give him 2x a day. I'm not sure he really even needs any now. He seems fine and doesn't seem to have any discomfort and it's been 6 days since surgery.

I got the names of the chicken breeds I have. Rhode Island Red, Cinnamon Queen, Plymouth Barred Rock, and Delaware. The Cinnamon likes to come up close to me and is very chatty with me. Of course I will have to name them, LOL. I think Cinnamon will be "Queenie". The Delaware will be Gladys (it's an old joke between us and the friend that gave me the chickens). Still thinking on the other 2 names. For some reason, to me is seems like hens should have old fashioned ladies names.

Cluck cluck

My friend texted about dinner time last night that she was home and I could come pick up the chickens then if I wanted, instead of this morning. DH came with me, thinking maybe he could visit with her DH, but his new job has him odd schedules, so this week he was working nights. She picked out 4 of the 11 chickens (it didn't matter to me which ones, LOL). She had gotten quite a variety of breeds, so  I have 4 different kinds. I can't remember all the different breed names she told me - I know one is Rhode Island Red, and one is Cinnamon something. The other is white and the 4th is black with kind of grey/white spots. I texted her this morning to remind me what kind they are.

She's been giving them pieces of bread every day as a treat and they love that, so as soon as I gave them a little last night they settled down, rather than hiding under part of the coop, LOL. When it got dark they figured out where to go, though Miss White hen was apparently blocking 2 of them from getting inside for a bit. I think she's in charge, haha.

This morning when I got up at 7, they weren't out yet, but about 10 minutes later they were. And fortunately (planned that way) where the coop is on the side facing our house and kind of angled, the neighbor dogs in their kennel can't see them, so I don't even think they realize they are there.

DH ended up hanging that water feeder, so it's not sitting on the ground.  Friend has a fenced in yard, so she lets the chickens free range. We can't do that, so they are just inside the coop. DH might eventually do some little fenced area below the coop, but for now they'll just be in the coop.

The ground in the coop was pretty much rocky, so DH put a thick layer of our extra topsoil, which also has a lot of sand in it, so that worked good, I think. I saw last night they were already finding bugs and worms in it.

My eye bothered me a bit during the night, for the first time in a month. Not the sharp intense pain but a bit uncomfortable, so I am praying it's not going to start being a problem again, at least let me get through the next couple of weeks with getting my mom moved!

DD's company (and her DH both work for same company) is doing some layoff's. I guess they offer voluntary layoffs first, so someone in DD's dept took it. Good news for DD, but it was the person who shared her work account with, so DD's going to be swamped now, but at least she has a job still.

A busy morning and lost papers

My morning of errands and doctor appointment went exactly on schedule. I got to the feed store right at 8:30. Was out at 8:55 and at Lowe's by 9am. It's been pouring rain all morning, so not a good day to be outside looking at their plants at all. I had gone in first to get the door latch and gloves and had them in a shopping cart. Went out to look at the hanging baskets for $7. They were really crappy, so I didn't get any. I did buy one tomato plant to try. By then I was soaked and so was my purse and the items in my cart. Couldn't find any cucumber or leaf lettuce plants. I looked at seed packets then, and only found cucumber. Nothing for lettuce or green beans.

Got to my dr. office right on time. Went to grab my (homemade) mask out of my purse and it wasn't there. I KNOW I put it in my purse this morning. I still had the little ziploc bag in the car with the really crappy paper mask I wore to the eye dr, so I put that on. Fogged up my glasses right away. As I was trying to check in, the gal said "you have same problem as I do, with fogging glasses" I said that I had a better mask that I thought was in my purse, but it's not. Then she offered me one of their disposable masks she had to hand out, if needed. Oh thank you! That fit much better and the fogging up wasn't quite as bad. Since my appt was later morning, I did not fast for blood work. I usually do that another day, at a closer lab and same place when I do my mammogram. My dr told me to just wait a couple of months or so to do the blood work and mammo. She also recommended I get the shingles vaccine, which I'm glad she brought up, because after my half sis and my boss both having shingles recently, that was something I wanted to ask about (but had forgotten, of course).

As soon as I was out of the doctors, I drove over to Walmart. I was about 10 minutes early and then also had to wait almost another 15 minutes for them to bring out my grocery order. Headed home, still driving 50 miles in the pouring rain. No fun.

Now, I'm trying to get payroll done, as that is due today. I wasn't paying attention to my calendar when I made the dr. appt last week, or I wouldn't have made the appt. today. Now, I'm waiting on an email back from my boss, who had said she was changing a salary person to an hourly person who wants to just work 4 days a week now.

Earlier I had emailed my mom's broker acct assistant lady. I wanted to make sure she got the paperwork I mailed and my mom was supposed to sign and mail back. Well, of course. She only got mine and hasn't received my mom's! UGHARRRHG!!! The day my mom got it in the mail she called me about it. I asked her then next day or the day after, if she remembered to get it in the mail (they sent a self addressed stamped envelope). She said "oh...I think I did I must have". Of course she didn't remember it a day or two later. So, I'm not even going to ask my mom about it or have her look through her desk papers for it. I'm just going to wait until I get there next Thursday and look for it myself. It has to be there with her papers, I'm sure. If I ever get all this changed and fixed, it will be a miracle!

I received 2 small checks in the mail yesterday. One for $14.90 from a class action lawsuit. I thought I had already received something from it, and then read the stub and it said this was an additional payout. I also already received the $10 rebate on the gallon of paint I bought a few weeks ago. That was pretty fast for a rebate. Usually those take forever.....or don't even come at all.

Chickens, appointments and errands

Well, the chicken coop is finally done, except for a few small items. We need a latch for the main door and need to install the porch lights (when they get here tomorrow) and light switches. I also need to get feed and feeder and waterer and shavings/bedding stuff. Since I have to go into the city tomorrow morning for my dr. appt, I will also stop and get all that stuff at the feed supply store.

Trying to "budget" my time to get all this and my dr. appt and pick up time for groceries. I also need/want to go to Lowes. That is where we need get the door latch and DH needs new leather work gloves. He's worn through the finger tips of his pair. Lowes also supposedly has hanging flower baskets on sale half price for $7. - at select stores. My store shows they have them. So, did DD's and she went to get some Saturday evening, after I told her about them, and they didn't have any that she could find. I'd like to get at least 4 and then just replant them in my own hanging baskets. I also want to pick up some veggies to grow in pots.

I want to go to the feed store and Lowes before my dr appt, so I need to make sure I allow myself enough time to get to my dr office by 9:45 to check in for my 10am appointment. The feed store's first hour is only for those over 60 or at risk, so I can't go in there until 8:30. I pretty much know what I need, and it's probably all going to to be in one aisle, so I should be able to get in and out by 9am at the latest. I'm pushing for 8:50 LOL.  Lowes is less than 5 minutes away. I know where the latches are (we already bought 2 for the inside coop doors) but not sure where the work gloves are. Their online doesn't say what aisle/bay, so I'll have to ask, rather than spend time looking for them. Then I want to go out to the garden center and look and get stuff. That will probably take the longest. The dr. office is 10 minutes from there, so I need to be out of Lowes by 9:35.

Not knowing if I'll have a wait at the dr office, I set up my grocery pickup for 11am. If I get out early and have time to kill I'll probably either stop in at Target or go inside Walmart - still looking for that elusive brand of TP we like. I'm not counting on that case I ordered online last week to actually ship. it hasn't yet.

Or I may have to go get prescriptions filled. My mail order pharmacy shipped out my refills last Tuesday, the 5th. Usually they take 3-4 days to get here. I checked tracking on Saturday and they were supposed to be here today. Good thing, because I am out of pills after Monday. I checked again this morning and now it says estimated delivery NEXT Saturday, the 16th. They were even sent "expedited delivery" via DHL (then on to the post office). They are showing they left the PO from the city this morning...40 minutes away. It's going to take another week to get to my town PO and then out to me? Ridiculous. I can't go more than a day or so without my heart medication, so I will have to have the dr. give me a week to 10 days refill and go to Walgreens to refill until the rest gets here.

I texted my friend (old neighbor), who has the chickens, to see if she still had the extra ones.  It was apparent over that last many weeks she's been annoyed that I wasn't able to take them. When she got them, she texted me a video of the tiny baby chicks she just got in the mail. I went over to visit/look at them. DH was supposed to start building our coop/shed the next weekend. We thought it would take 3-4 weeks. Friend said she had a few extras, because they always ship extra chicks, and I could have them if I wanted, so I said sure, but can't take them until DH is done building the coop. Then DH got a 2 week late start building because the guy he hired to help didn't show up and he had to find someone else. Then the whole thing just took twice as long (of course) to build as he estimated. She texted me like over a month ago asking if I was ready yet, because they were all getting big and she didn't have room. I apologized and said if I had known it was going to take so long I wouldn't have said I'd take the chicks and that if she needs to get rid of them and has someone else who wants them, it won't hurt my feelings, I completely understand. She never replied back. Then about 2 weeks ago she texted again. I apologized again and basically said the same thing again. No reply. Geez at least acknowledge one way or the other, right?

So, I texted her last night and said Happy Mother's Day. The coop is finally done, I just have to get some supplies on Tuesday morning picked up, so if she still has the hens I can take them Tuesday or after. She replied back she is busy Tuesday but Wednesday will be good and she has 4 to get rid of. We had originally discussed taking 3, so I guess I'll get 4 now, LOL. She wasn't very friendly or chatty with the texts like she used to be, either. Whatever. It's not like she couldn't have found someone to sell/give them too. She knows everybody in town and lots of people in this area want/have chickens. What would she have done with the extra ones she got, to begin with, if I had never even had any intentions to have chickens at some point? I'm sure a majority of her attitude isn't even related to this. Her DH is home now, LOL. He usually works out of state 2-3 weeks straight and  then is home 2-3 weeks. Well, since this virus started he can't go back to his job. I guess he did take a local job (well, local for here - it's an hour drive each way) but he's home every evening/weekends now. She hasn't been used to that for 6 or 7 years and I'm sure he's annoying the hell out of her, not to mention I'm sure his pay at this new job isn't anything near what he was making. But, I'm sure they are find financial wise (or they should be). Their house has been paid for for years. They don't have any debt and she still is working.

Our paving of the driveway is on hold. The lady called last night and said with the rain expected starting Monday night or Tuesday they want to wait, otherwise if they spent today opening up the ground to get it ready for their gravel base, it'll just turn into a muddy mess and they need 2-3 days to do the job and need it dry the whole time. So, probably now not until next week or even later, since rain is predicted all week and even the next. Ugh. Always something delaying everything we try to do.

Mom's Day

I barely sat down all day yesterday, I was so busy helping DH stain boards as he was cutting them. I can't believe how many boards, different sizes and lengths this chicken coop has. Just the big door he is making to enter the coop has like 16 boards, each piece needing to be stained on all sides. We got the wire up and secured (more boards on each side of the wiring). Little trim pieces he added around top and bottom of the post beams.

Each side of the wired areas has 7 boards, inside and out, so 28 pieces he measured and cut and I stained. The big door is almost done. He decided to add to more pieces of support to it, so he will cut those today and I will stain. I still have some touch up stain to do as well as stain the inside of that larger door into the nesting area. It's almost done! The light fixtures are supposed to be here Tuesday and I need to pick up some more hardware for the door at Lowes, when I have to go into the city on Tuesday morning.

Our mason guy came again yesterday for about 5 hours, but not quite finished and I guess now he's not going to come back until next Saturday to finish up.

I literally could not move by the time I got to sit down at 7:30 last night. My hips hurt when I have to stand for long periods. My wrist (carpal tunnel) hurt from rolling all the stain on for hours. My feet hurt from spending half if it standing on the concrete inside the garage.

Our neighbor got a brand new pick up truck yesterday. It sounds like they traded in his older car and also an older pickup truck. Kinda glad to see the older truck going, LOL. Only because they parked it outside along the edge of their property and it was kind of an eyesore, only because of the paint job, haha. It has been a business truck of theirs years ago, when they lived in the city and so basically wrapped like a moving billboard, LOL. Every time DH would try to get a nice drone picture of our whole property that truck would be in the picture, haha.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's. It's pretty much a bittersweet day for me now, since I don't have my son in my life anymore. Wish we could have had my mom over here already, but 2 more weeks and she will be.

Projects

The mason guy got about halfway done, or so, yesterday. He's like one of the nicest guys in the world, so it's hard to be mad at him for taking so long to get here. DH enjoys talking with him and they have kept in touch as friends via text since he did all our other stone work.

The HVAC guy also stopped by yesterday. I guess DH texted him that our outside heat pump unit was making a lot of noise that didn't sound normal. He quickly found the issue - a baffle underneath the cover that was just close enough when it came on to rub against the outside cover. Fixed in a few minutes.

A no show on the paving crew. The lady had called Thursday and said they'd be dropping the equipment off either that afternoon or yesterday. Then she called back and said they were still finishing up another job in the next town over and would be dropping it all off Friday afternoon. Nothing and no call.

DH keeps working away on the chicken coop and shed. So many little details to it all, plus it's a bit fancy, LOL. But we wanted to use up what we could. He sided the inside wall with the leftover shakes. He did the ceiling and also the walls inside the nesting area all in tongue and groove. Which of course every piece had to be stained first. The doors are leftover tongue and groove, too. The ramp is leftover lumber from our trees cut down (as well as those beams). The window was a leftover (or wrongly ordered window) used up. I'm sure to all you chicken experts out there, this is probably totally not the way to do it all, but oh well. DH did what he wanted to do, LOL. It's cute. I like it. He's got the perch inside put up, but I think he still needs to do a couple of nesting boxes.

Today  he is working on a door to put there between that beam and tan colored trim on corner of coop. It will have wire in it and then the rest of it will all be wired in.

Our older dog seems to still be doing well, after his little surgery yesterday. I am also giving him 2 pain pills a day and one antibiotic. Our other dog is being strange. Yesterday morning he didn't want to eat his breakfast and only ate half. He ate snacks and his dinner fine. Then this morning he didn't want to eat either, but I finally cajoled him into it. I don't know if he's decided he doesn't like the softened version now or what his problem is. I may have to try the other method the vet said also works to slow his eating down - put a couple of big rocks in his bowl so it takes him longer to get at his food.

I cleaned and refilled the hummingbird feeders this morning. Another one hit our window last night, but he just got stunned and was up and on his way after about 30 seconds.

I remembered to cancel my month's subscription to Ancestry this morning. I haven't done much more in the past 10 days and had only wanted to do it for a month anyway - just to see what I could find and I was pleased that I was able to get quite a bit of info I couldn't find a few years ago.

I'm working on a grocery pick up order for Tuesday, after I go to my dr appt. Still out of things I want....rice, mayo, TP, Wheaties, soups like "beef stew" type. A friend went grocery shopping in his town the other day and the meat section was basically empty, he said.

Well, back to Saturday morning house cleaning.